Dr Capolingua said undergraduate students needed to be taught that it was unethical to have a sexual relationship with a patient.

The latest study of 62 medical students in Glasgow found that four out of 10 thought it was acceptable to have a sexual relationship with a patient in certain situations.

In one scenario the students were asked if they would accept an invitation to dinner from a patient finishing a lengthy treatment if they were the only doctor on a remote Scottish island. Sixty percent said they would decline because it would be unethical. But the remaining students said they would accept because they believed they could keep their public and private lives separate, or due to the difficulty of meeting someone in an isolated place.